Israel – State Appeals Parole Bd.’s Early Release Of Rabbi Pinto From Jail

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    Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto seen entering Ayalon prison on february 16, 2016, beginning a one year prison term for attempted bribery. Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90 *Israel – The state on Friday filed a petition with the Lod District Court appealing the Parole Board’s Monday decision to grant Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto’s request for early release from Nitzan Prison seven months into a one year jail sentence for attempted bribery.

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    The Parole Board had delayed its order for seven days in case the state prosecution, which had opposed the request, undertook an appeal.    

    Pinto’s one year prison term for attempted bribery followed an ultimately failed furious legal and public relations campaign to avoid any prison time, including cutting a plea bargain with the prosecution to turn state’s witness against former Lahav 443 commander Menashe Arbiv. 

    After the Supreme Court denied his appeal on January 5, Pinto’s prison sentence was only a matter of time. 

    Pinto was sentenced by Tel Aviv District Court Judge Oded Mudrik to his one-year prison sentence as part of a plea bargain in May 2015 along with a NIS 1 million fine.

    Pinto tried to bribe the police’s National Fraud Squad head Ephraim Bracha with $200,000 to get information from him about a criminal investigation into the Hazon Yeshaya foundation Pinto was running.

    Bracha reported Pinto’s actions to his superiors, then continued to gather evidence on the rabbi.

    In summer 2015, Bracha committed suicide following a public campaign against him on a number of fronts, including by followers of Pinto via social media.

    Pinto is the founder of the Shuva Israel Yeshiva and a well-known rabbi in both Israel and the US. He is also a descendant of two Sephardi rabbinical dynasties, Pinto and Abuhatzeira. Forbes has previously listed him as the seventh-richest rabbi in Israel.

    Seeking to avoid jail time, Pinto’s former lawyer, Eyal Rozovsky, had told Judge Mudrik in May 2015 that he should only get six months community service because he is a state’s witness who made possible a huge criminal case against Arbiv, who the state recently announced it will likely indict. 

    Rozovsky also pointed out that other state’s witnesses got off with no jail time.

    But the state successfully convinced Mudrik and the Supreme Court that Pinto was fortunate, courtesy of the plea bargain, to not be serving five years in prison for attempted bribery, and that one year was a lenient sentence.

    After Mudrik’s sentencing Pinto to jail in May 2015, the prosecution declared victoriously, that “even powerful people with connections still get justice for their deeds.”‎


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